Happy Memorial Day

Memorial Day Pic--notice the patriotic hat


I have to confess, I'm some sort of manic/depressive housework/home improvement weirdo. I can go quite some time with no desire to do much here at home and then....I'm hit by some sort of frenzy and once I get started forward momentum pulls me along (at least for awhile, there's no perpetual motion afterall). Since Friday I've cleaned 4 rooms of carpet, took up a horrible carpet like substance from the upstairs hallway, painted three kids rooms, a desk and touched up all the spots where paint was chipped in the living room. I wish I knew what brought on these fits, then I could conjure one at will. I can literally go years between the desire to paint. I have now used up all the brushes, rollers and paint I had on hand so I'll have to be done awhile. I could, theoretically, still repaint the dining room (not that we dine there) and paint the outbuilding/playhouse. We'll see if I run down before I get to the store for more supplies.

Disappointment

E has been planning for 3 weeks to attend a sleepover birthday party tonight. It is one of her best friends and they were going to go to the movies and eat pizza and no doubt IM everyone they knew all night. Of course this would be the morning I found her asleep on the bathroom floor. She's throwing up and has a fever. She is disappointed she can't go (as only a 13yo can be disappointed) and I'm thinking.....three day weekend, stomach virus, six kids.....hey, this will be fun.

A Question?

So if you are one, and at the park you fall down and have blood all over your mouth, and you already have a black eye, and your mommy asks you if you've been in a bar fight....should you call CPS? The other mommies thought so.

For Six Kids My A**

So we went to the family class party Friday night. I got in the pool with my little kids because, well , they love to swim and it seemed heartless to just toss them in, since they can't swim and all. Now, I don't think I'm especially fun loving or anything, I just think the women in this town are BORING! Precisely one other mom and two dads got in the water. The rest sat on the bleachers, many making their little kids sit next to them, for an hour and a half. (No way would my kids sit there for an hour and a half.) And do you know the only thing they could find to talk about??? The size of my butt. I know this because not one, not two but three people told me how they all couldn't believe how good I looked for having ALL THOSE KIDS! Are they stupid? Bored? Really hard up for conversation? A bunch of nibby bitches?? You decide.

Baseball and Swimming and Pics, Oh My

This weekend should be tolerably entertaining. Tonight C's class is having an end of year party. We'll be swimming(inside) and grilling out. Most classes don't do this, but they have been together and had the same teacher for three years. They are all very attatched. I'm secretly sure the teacher will be thrilled to get a new group though. C and L have ball games. Saturday morning are ball pictures (which I don't buy but the other kids want group pics) and practice. That's pretty much it. Dh may take C and S to see the Star Wars movie. If it doesn't rain Sunday, I'd like to go hiking and have a "junknic". Coke, chips and cookies are too a meal!

Binge

No, not that kind! I've been on a book binge, thus the low blogging volume (also low houskeeping and cooking volume, but I digress.) I do this occasionally, I find a new author that I like, and then read everything I can get by said author. This time it's Lois Bujold books. It has been nice outside, so, I sit on the swing reading and let the kids play outside. Of course if they want to come in they have to wait until I'm done with my chapter. Yesterday, for some unknown reason, they made a pile of grass.

They then re-encated Little Boy Blue??

At least 4yo is healing and 11 yo is refraining from going around pointing and saying "A pox be upon you!"

The Chicken Pops

F, my 4yo, has the chicken pox, or chicken pops as he calls them.

L, who is 6, had them two weeks ago. Mel had the shot and got two little pox on her tummy and that was it.
I would just like to state that benadryl is a miracle drug. I'm not convinced it really stops itching or runny noses or anything else, but it does bring blissful slumber, and is so much more legal than forcing them to drink bourbon.

Easy Come, Easy Go( or how to go broke in one morning)

Pretty boring here. The weather has turned cold and rainy again. I went to the grocery store this morning -$94.00, gassed up $11.00, went to liquor store (trust me, this was necessary) $29.00, filled an Rx $10.00. $154.00-poof! I sent dh off to work to recoup our losses. What else has been going on? Tuesday we went to a minor league baseball game. The weather was still nice so it was fun. Yesterday it hailed, then turned humid. Maybe I'm not looking forward to summer after all. I also replaced screens in 4 windows. Grasshoppers insist on eating our screen, then when they make a hole my kids oblige them by making it bigger. I am now the queen of spline! I also bought some paint for ds's room. Now for it to warm up so I can open the windows and not pass out while I paint it. Tonight is dance practice, Friday is Cub Scouts and Saturday is a blur of baseball and dance performances at the local "arts festival". There will be elephant ears available though, hmm.....

Play Ball

Gee, do you think she's been to too many ball practices?


"Real" ball games start next week. L is playing T-ball, C is playing Little League and E is playing Sr. Girl's Softball. C's team is made up almost totally of 3rd graders. The league is 3-6 grade and his team is all 3rd except one 5th grader. It should be a really, really long year. E moved up to Sr. League this year, 7th -12th grade. She is half the size of the other girls. I hope no one slides into her. I guess I better get to the store this week and stock up on more antihistimines (allergies) and plenty of mosquito-be-gone.

It's Not Easy Being Green

As part of my ongoing field study of dirt, I would like to go on record as noting that neither soap nor alcohol nor dish soap can remove ground in grass stains from the feet of a four year old. I also learned that green feet are a small price to pay for the sheer joy of running through cut grass, over and over, just because it feels good.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

With the weather behaving true to form, I have gone from sitting in my winter coat Wednesday at ball practice to being sunburned and parched today.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

E is on hour 27 of a rice only weekend. (This is a social studies project, voluntary I might note.) She is not particularly pleasant. Perhaps if we were stuck with only rice to eat, I WOULD eat my young. Of course, holding true to her overachiever personality, I'm sure she'll stick it out until tomorrow at 6pm. She did pause when I suggested a chocolate rice sundae though.

Spring Again

Thankfully we've left the last few days of freezing temps behind and today was warm. All the better to sit in the yard and watch the kids (this translates into sitting in the sun and reading). I read Being Perfect by Anna Quindlen, Speed Cleaning 101 (I sped through that one, lol) and I've started Death of an Angel by Sister Carol O'Marie. I love being able to go on a reading binge. In the last few days I've also reached the top of Mt. Washmore and got in groceries (0g, you hunt, me gather!)

Date Night

It really takes so little to thrill me. Tonight, since we have no dance, baseball, softball, t-ball, play practice or scouts, dh and I are going to the Root Beer Stand. A real one where they bring your food to a tray stuck in your window. I will eat coney dogs with onions (an advantage of 18 years of marriage) and drink cold root beer from a frosty mug. It really is good in a so bad it's good kind of way. We will listen to '80's rock on the radio and generally revert to our younger selves, if only for an hour.